From trees to bees: Linking forest composition with pollinator diversity for monitoring upscaling

Research Highlight: Monitoring the restoration process can help us understand the relationships between plants and animals. By manipulating the habitat, researchers can evaluate how changes in plant community influence the diversity and distribution of associated fauna. Yet, the mechanisms shaping pollinators' diversity in response to forest attributes remain poorly understood. The study by Xie et al. (2025) demonstrates how tree richness and forest canopy cover influence pollinator communities by mediating floral resource availability in the understory and modifying microclimatic conditions within the forest. The authors found that tree richness increases canopy cover and consequently changes the microclimatic conditions within the forest, which, in turn, reshapes the niche space available for bee communities. Such findings are fundamental because they reveal how changes in one component of biodiversity cascade into others. Such mechanistic insights are also crucial for scaling up biodiversity assessments using remote sensing and for guiding restoration strategies that move beyond vegetation recovery to the restoration of ecosystem functions.